Emil c



(No Model.) 1

, E. C. BOERNER.

v METHOD OF SHAPING NUT BLANKS'.

No. 395,030. Patented Dec. 25, 1888.

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llNlTED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

EMTL (l. BOERNER, OF PORT CHESTER, NElV YORK, ASSIGNOR TO \VILLIAM E. \VARD, OF SAME PLACE.

METHOD OF SHAPING NUT-BLANKS.

SIECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 395,030, dated December 25, 1888. Application filed October 7, 1887. Serial No. 2 61,73l. (N model) To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, EMIL C. BOERNER, of Port Chester, in the county of \Vestchester and State of New York, have invented a new and useful Improvement in the Method of Making Nut-Blanks; and I do hereby declare that the following specification, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, forming a part of the same, is a full, clear, and exact description thereof.

In all methods heretofore employed for 1n aking nut-blanks or for punching out pieces of metal polygonal in cross-section with which I am acquainted there has been employed, in

I 5 combination, a female die and a male plunger or die, the cross-sections of which are identical in form, and the mode of operation in punching out-as, for example, a hexagonal nut-blank from a bar-has been to inter- 2o pose the bar between the face of the female die and the end of the plunger and cause by the forward movement of the plunger the metal to be cut from the bar and forced into the opening in the female die, the plunger following up the blank and entering the die.

In making nut-blanks it is customary to employ a bar of stock from which the blanks are punched. The holes, which after the blanks are finished are respectively to constitute the central openings of the nuts and to be furnished with screw threads, are punched through the bar before the nut-blank is punched out of the bar. \Vhen the nut-blank subsequently punched from the bar is under 5 the action of a hexagonal female die and a hexagonal punch co-operating therewith, it is a fact within the experience of manufacturers of cold-punched nuts that the central hole is liable to be distorted in shape if the face of the blank be not well filled out at the corners.

My improved method consists in employing a plunger or punch of larger area in cross section or upon its face than the area of the opening of the hexagonal or other form of female die which determines the final form of the blank. The punch may be square ofcircular in cross-section, notwithstanding that it is to co-operate with a female die, the opening in which is hexagonal or of other polygonal shape. I cause the metal out of which,

for example, a hexagonal nut-blank is to be formed to be interposed between the female die and the face of the said plunger of larger area, and drive the metal by means of such plunger partially into the female die, say, to the extent of one-half the thickness of the metal, more orless. I next interpose between the face of the plunger or punch and the blank already in the female hexagonal die and partly projecting therefrom a second piece of metal similar to the first, and cause a second forward movement of the plunger to take place, the effect of which is to cause the first pieceqof metal to be wholly driven into the hexagonal die and the second piece of metal to be left partly within and partly without said die, the same as the first. As this operation is repeated, the nut-blanks are forced through the delivery-duct in the rear of the female die one after another in series. The effect of thus employing a punch and die of the character described is to cause each finished hexagonal blank to be full and true at the angles, and the cental hole is not distorted.

The pieces of metal or primary blanks to be operated upon by the process above described can be obtained by punching the same with suitable mechanism from a bar of stock preliminary to presenting the same in succession to the female die; or a quantity of such primary blanks can be procured and fed be tween the female-die and plunger, one by one, from a stack in a well-known manner.

An apparatus by which the above-described process can be conveniently worked is exhibited in the accompanying drawings, of which- Figure 1 represents a central vertical section through a portion of a machine adapted to carry out my improved method, the punch being in rearward position. Fig. 2 shows a section of a portion of the machine, representing the pnnch or plunger at the extreme of its forward movement, having forced 5 a blank partially into the hexagonal shapingdie. Fig. 3 represents a similar view, showing the punch in the act of moving forward and causing a blank. to force, the next preceding blank wholly into the hexagonal die, I00

and thereby fully shape the said preceding blank, and also move forward into the deliveryduet the series of preceding blanks. Fig. 4.- shows a perspective view, on an enlarged scale, of: the cutting-off die. Fig. represents in perspective. the hexagonal female die. Fig. 6 shows in perspective a portion of the plunger or male die. Fig. 7 represents in perspective a primary blank as cut from a bar of stock. Fig. 8 shows in perspective a nut-blank having the desired final form.

A, Fi 1, represents the main shaft of a nutmachine. 1-3 is an eccentric mounted on the same, which, through its strap (7, gives a reciprocatory movement to the cross-head l), moving in suitable slides. To the front end of this cross-head there is attached the usual heath block, E, which carries the punch F. This punch in the present instance is square in cross-section, and, in co-operation with a follow die, G, having an opening of correspond ing form, will cause a primary blank to be punched from a bar of stock corresponding in form with that shown at Fig. '7.

It is to be understood that the bar of stock has been previously punched with the central hole for the nut, and that such bar is intermittingly fed along between the punch F and the die G, so as to allow successive rectangular pieces of metal composing the primary blanks herein mentioned to be punched therefrom in a perfectly well-understood way.

The punch shown is provided with a teat which is capable of entering easily the hole already punched in the bar, and thereby, sup plcmentary to the feeding mechanism, perform the duty of readjusting longitudinally, if necessary, the position of the bar, to secure a proper alignment of the punched hole with the axis of the female die. This matter, however, does not concern the present subject of invention, but is the subject of another application for Letters Patent. The area of the end or c1.-oss-secti(m of the punch F, and consequently the area of the primary blank a, Fig. 7, is greater than the area of the hexagonal blank intended to be made, as illustrated at I), Fig. 8.

ll indicates a female die having a hexagonal opening, which is located in the rear of the die G, the axes of the two dies coinciding. The area of the opening in the die H is less than the areas of the opening in the die (-l and the end of the punch F, respectively. The plunger F forces the primary blank a against the face of the hexagonal female die ll and crowds the blank into the same to any desired extent say for one-lntlt' of the thickness, (more or less,) as shown at Fig. 2-the throw of the eccentric 1; being sulficicnt to give the necessary movement to the punch. It would be impractimrl)lc without great: liability of injury to the face of the punch F to crowd the primary blank (I completely into the die ll, and it is therefore much. better in practice to have the blank protrude beyond the face of the die ll, when first introduced therein by the punch F, by a distance which will prevent the possibility of the face of the punch, which is incapable of entering the opening in the hexagonal die ll, coming into contact with its face. The punch or plunger F now witlnlrawn, as the result of the revolution of themain shal'tA. The bar of stock is fed along another space by the well-known mechanism before referred to, and the operation of punching out from the bar a second primary blank (I, and crowding it partially into the die II, is repeated. This second operation necessarily forces the previous primary blank, which was left partially in the die ll, wholly into the said die. The repetition of the operation described will cause the nutblanks, one after another, to be dischargeifl into the delivery-duct K of the machine, as indicated at Fig. 3.

The mechanism hereinlmlj'orc described, and illustrated in the drawings, is not claimed in this application, but is the subject of a separate application for Letters Patent filed May 18, 1888, Serial No. 274,335).

\Vhat I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, i s

The process, substantially as herein described, of forming 'nut-l.)lanks, which consists in first forcing into a die a primary blank of greater face area than the opening in said die, by means of a punch or plunger the face of which is of a larger area than that of the opening in said die, and, secondly, in completing the form of such nut-blank and forein g it through such dieby introducing into said die a succeeding primary blank or blanks in succession in the same manner that the first primary blank is introduced.

lCMll. BOERNER.

Witnesses:

\YILLIAM. L. \VARD, b. N. LE FREIRE. 

